


The Rebuilding

by theonetryingtolive



Category: Anthropoid (2016)
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-09 08:38:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20850587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theonetryingtolive/pseuds/theonetryingtolive
Summary: “You’re all I have left, you know that?”





	The Rebuilding

Josef Gabcík could hear the dripping of a faucet nearby, but he didn’t move from his seat at the table. He’d sat down at a quarter to midnight, and now that it was way past three he was finally able to make sense of what his tortured mind had been turning over and over. He looked up, the muscles in his neck screaming after being immobile for so long, and lit a cigarette. 

His eyes gleamed in the fickle light of the single lightbulb, and he closed them tightly, just for a few seconds. Just until he could convince himself of the improbabilities of happiness, just until he could gather the scattered pieces of courage he had lost before the clock struck midnight. 

The time before midnight always seemed to exist in a different dimension than the hours after did. Before those twelve chimes he allowed himself five minutes of despondent, disgraceful thoughts. Five minutes to shatter, and watch the broken pieces of himself disintegrate in his fury, in his fear. Five minutes to stop being a soldier, to be a man. Five minutes, and then the twelve chimes, then the silence. The silence after was the rebuilding, and sometimes that was harder than the breaking down. 

Once he had rebuilt himself enough, he stood, and turned off the light of the kitchen. He made his way to the bedroom, and sat at the edge of the bed, his gaze fixed on your sleeping form. His hand glided up your leg and he squeezed your hip softly. You didn’t wake, but Josef didn’t want to wake you. He just wanted you to feel his presence in the room, wanted you to know he would fight until the end for you, for what was right. 

In the darkness, he leaned down to kiss your lips, and whispered, “You’re all I have left, you know that?”


End file.
